Hi, there! I just recently purchased a 1996 Buick Park Avenue and I'm loving it! Having been a Volkswagen girl and then after that owning a Honda for about 6 years, I have now plunged into Buick ownership! My Park Avenue is so fun to drive! Definitely luxury! It has more stuff than my 2000 Honda Civic did and its older! I can't believe it. The Buick'* name is Roxanne...as after I was draining the radiator the other day I kept humming that Sting song to myself. Haha.

Anyways, I took her to a mechanic and I guess she has a bad upper intake gasket and rear wheel cylinders need replacing. I'm not good enough at working on cars to do these things myself (nor do I have the means), so I'm taking her to a shop to get fixed up.

Are these Park Avenues good cars as far as reliability? I've heard some good and bad things from mechanic friends, one of which won't even work on my new (old) car. Hah! But I have no idea about them. I've never owned a Buick! So far I adore her. She'* not small and fuel efficient like my Honda, but she sure is comfy and fun to drive!

Thanks for having me, folks! Any info or things to check for with an older Buick would be welcomed, any input in general will be equally welcomed! Nice to meet you all.

They rarely have bad upper intake gaskets.....what they have is bad lower intake gaskets, leaking throttle body gasket, and usually have a bad upper plenum where the EGR tube can melt the surrounding composite material, causing a coolant leak that could lock your engine(so if any upper engine work is done, the Plenum should be checked out for this problem)..........

You don't give the mileage.....

P/A are nice....have a nice ride....but it is a 21 year old car.....not knowing the maintenance on it, two things could happen......one it was well maintained, and you will have less repairs(especially if the car is a southern car, not exposed to the salt of the northern states)....or two, you will pay through the nose....

The 3.8 engines were known for the lower intake gasket and upper plenum composite degradation(already mentioned).....w/p leaks.....oil pan leaks.....

The transmission had it'* share of problems, especially with pressure control valves, and if the maintenance was not done on it at proper intervals, it'* just a matter of time....

Not trying to scare you....but it'* buyer beware on ANY 21 year old care, especially if the maintenance history is not known.....

You could luck out, or this vehicle can suck the dollars right out of your wallet.....

Whenever you buy a used vehicle, you should get permission first, to have it checked out by a reliable Tech at a garage(plan on one hour labor).......that way if problems are found, you can go back to the seller to renegotiate for repairs......otherwise, you will be eventually stuck with them on your own....there are no lemon laws for vehicles that old....

Hey,thanks TechII! Yeah he said something about the gasket on the intake, and checked everything else and said it was good. Not sure about transmission. It has 126,000 miles on it and has the 3800 engine which I've heard is pretty reliable. I'm not worried about putting money into it, as long as it'* not too much at once. Haha. I have a lot of mechanic friends and I like to do things myself, so I'm sure this car will provide me with a lot of learning experience! It is a west coast car, as I live in a coastal California town called Santa Cruz. Thanks for your input though! I'm gonna have my mechanic who is fixing the intake gasket to check the other things you mentioned! I appreciate it. I'm hoping the car will hold up for at least a couple more years until I can save money to get another vehicle. And if it lasts longer, then even better!

Also, I remember the owner saying that she kept up on regular maintenance such as oil changes and brakes and such. Not sure about transmission work. What kinds of things would be encompassed in "regular maintenance" for this car? Also, at 126,000 miles, what type of maintenance should I keep up on? Tune ups? Transmission flush? I'm not sure and I apologize for sounding completely naive.

Hi, wish you lots of good time with your PA.

I have mine for 15 years now, 180k mls done. Needed some work, including a complete engine rebuilt.

In general the car is very reliable - good regular maintenance assumed. However, I found particular two issues at least with mine: engine mounts and steering pump.
Engine mounts replaced in my car 4 times during my ownership. Fortunately the mounts are available and not too expensive. Let'* see how long they last this time around.
Steering pump I found leaking two times within a year so I had to replace it. Will see this time.

Living not in America spare parts are difficult to get and expensive for me. I guess that is not a problem you will have, at least with the majority of parts. However, some body parts and some of the electronics are now rare to impossible to find. For instance my car needs a memory seat control module replacement (currently, my driver and passenger seat don't move at all, thanks to that module being shot) which so far I couldn't find.

So, good luck and hopefully you will enjoy your car for long time.

Hello and welcome to the forum. If your engine has the plastic lower intake gaskets, then have your mechanic replace them. If he/she is going to replace the upper intake plenum; and if this engine has the EGR tube in contact with the plenum then go ahead and replace the plenum and get the reduced EGR stove pipe. It is labour not parts that cost so go ahead and do this now as the extra labour charges won't be that much more to replace the lower intake gaskets; and if it has the plastic coolant elbow on the lower intake, replace that as well. You could do the work but you need a shed to work in and some special tools such as torque wrenches. And the O-rings should be replaced on the injectors and since the fuel rail has to be removed it is a good time to check the injectors; which is easy to do, there are YouTube vids on doing this; although you will have your mechanic to do the work.

One other thing is to check the serpentine belt for cracks and the idler pulley. However, that belt is under a lot of tension and you can pinch yourself in a bad way; never put fingers between the belt and a drive pulley. Work carefully and you want get hurt. And of course don't put fingers near the belt when it is moving and if you have long hair, tie it up out of the way.